


Friendship Goals

by imminentinertia



Category: SKAM (Norway)
Genre: Drunkenness, Gen, Post-Canon, Russ Celebration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 05:18:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14610225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imminentinertia/pseuds/imminentinertia
Summary: A snippet from Chris Berg's russ celebrations 2018.





	Friendship Goals

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this ficlet as part of the Norwegian collab [Knuter på tråden](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14492364), about the SKAM characters’ russ celebrations in May 2018. I was sufficiently happy with it to translate it, as there are too few Chris Berg POV fics in the fandom, I think.

 

Chris is cheerful and fun.

This is an established fact.

Sometimes she thinks about something her mum once said, about fair-weather friends. The kind of friends you can have fun with, and only that. The kind of friend you wouldn’t tell something serious or sad. The kind of friend you’re not interested in telling you something serious or sad. The kind of friend you can hang out with for fun, not because they are your true friend.

Sometimes Chris feels like everyone’s fair-weather friend.

When Vilde is having a rough time all the girls gather around her, go with her to the doctor, lend her money without asking what's the deal, hold her. When Noora is having a rough time they gather around her as well, comfort her, take her to the ER, let her talk about what's bothering her. When Sana is having a rough time, now that she has learned to show them a little of what she’s feeling, all the girls rally to show her that they’re her squad, that they all are Los Losers together, that she’s not alone.

Chris can’t remember any occasion where they’ve rallied around _her_.

Or Eva. Or maybe a little. But Eva is also a bit of a fair-weather friend, maybe. The party chick who can handle everything herself, who’s with Jonas again and feels fine.

Deep down Chris knows that they’re fond of her. She’s fond of them too. It’s just that she thinks about it now, when she’s looking at them sitting around her, laughing together, that none of them has ever seen her cry.

None of them has heard what she really thought about Kasper dumping her. None of them has realized when a bad grade has made her miserable, when she’s hidden behind jokes about flunking and having to pursue a career at Kondomeriet. None of them has heard about how it felt to overhear someone she’d hooked up with telling his friends about the fat girl he’d fucked.

She's just someone you have fun with.

Maybe she’s just having a bad day.

Okay, maybe she must tackle her bad day herself. Be cheerful and fun. On the surface. Then she’ll probably turn cheerful and fun on the inside as well. She’ll have another beer.

And another.

And another.

 

* * *

  


it's insanely weird how the music sounds like the volume fluctuates lots

dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng

Avicii?

maybe

she doesn’t fucking know

dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng

she can’t really see clearly eyes lagging can’t focus on one thing

bit disturbing

really strange sound it makes no fucking sense only dips and climbs

makes her feel like _she’s_ dipping and climbing

dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng dzzZZZJJIIIiiinnnng

not in a good way

her stomach doesn’t dip and climb in the same rhythm as the rest of her

and she needs to pee

 

* * *

  


Acrid taste in her mouth.

Acrid odour in her nose.

Cool fabric against her cheek. She’s lying down, on her side.

Where is she?

Adrenaline races for a moment, Chris is terrified, everyone knows that rapes happen, especially during the russ celebrations, maybe someone has kidnapped her?

"Oh, she’s waking up. Poor little Chris, how are you feeling?”

Noora.

Chris exhales, a sting in her nose and mouth, but she can relax. With Noora here it’s safe. Noora doesn’t get kidnapped.

A cool hand settles on her forehead.

"Eva, maybe you can get a flannel?”

"Yes, of course. I’ll get a glass of water, too."

Eva is here as well. Chris relaxes a little bit more. She can’t find the strength to open her eyes, the inside of her eyelids looks red and that means there’s plenty of light around her. She can’t bear the light right now. Her stomach feels as if light can cause it to start moving around.

Someone gently starts to wipe her face with a cool cloth. It's too wet, some water trickles down her cheek.

"Oh no, we’re spilling water on the duvet. I'll wring it out some more.”

Vilde’s voice.

There’s splashing against plastic, then the cloth is back on her face. Some of the sour smell disappears. The taste is still there.

"Can you sit up? So you're able to drink?"

“Oh, there’s some on her sweater. I’ll get a t-shirt for her."

Hands on all sides help her sit up. She still can’t open her eyes. The hands carefully take off her sweater and singlet, slip soft cool cotton down over her head and around her body.

"Chris, here’s water. Don’t gulp it down. Just a little."

Vilde, again. Oh Vilde, who’s probably done this for the mother they pretend that Chris doesn’t know anything about.

Cold hard glass against her lips, delicious cold water in her mouth. The sourness flushes away.

"That’s enough. We’ll get you more later."

Her stomach stays in place, so Chris dares to open her eyes.

There they are, all of them together. Everyone but Sana. Vilde with the glass, on her knees on the floor in front of Chris, Noora sitting beside her with his arm around her shoulders, Eva on the other side, gently pushing her hair away from her face.

Someone comes in and everybody looks up, there’s Sana too, wearing a towel turban and sweatpants and one of Eva's polo shirts. She smiles, all dimples.

"Hey, you’re awake! Feeling better?"

Sana pads across the floor and sits down beside Eva, stretching out her arm and rubbing Chris’ thigh, shaking her head.

"All of you need to stop vomiting on me, honestly. Why is it always me?"

Chris laughs and laughs and laughs, thankfully her stomach continues to behave itself so she doesn’t throw up on Sana again, or on any of the others.

"What really happened? I can’t remember a thing."

Vilde is leaning forward, eyes shining with mirth.

"You were really drunk. And then you began to talk about doing the straw knot.”

Noora laughs.

"Of all the knots you can do, seriously. So you did it."

Chris can feel her face heat up. _The drinking straw!_

"Eeeeh ... where did I do it?"

Eva pets her hair.

"Behind a bush. No one saw it."

Sana takes her hand and holds it.

"We stood guard. Congrats on the straw!"

They all start speaking at once.

"But then you just fell over afterwards! You were completely limp and out of it!"

"You didn’t fall where you’d peed, fortunately."

"Yeah, fortunately!"

"You just sort of keeled over."

"And then you didn’t answer when we spoke to you."

"So we took you here."

"Maybe we should sleep now. If you’re done throwing up."

The corners of Chris’ mouth turn up into a smile.

"I think I’m okay now. Sleep sounds good. I have to text my mum..."

They’re all touching her, stroking her hair, patting her on the knee, squeezing her hand, squeezing her shoulders. Everybody has such soft hands.

"We took care of that."

"Yes, I texted her."

"No stress."

"It’s great that you’re better, you gave us a little scare."

Chris relaxes. Her shoulders feel lighter, those stupid thoughts from earlier are forgotten. Her head is pounding, but that's OK. She lies down and makes herself comfortable in Eva’s bed and the girls follow suit, tugging on the pillows and duvets and blankets and tucking each other in. Eva curses because the ceiling light is still on, climbs over Sana and turns off all lights except the lamp on one bedside table, climbs back in and fights Sana a little over the space closest to Chris. On the other side Vilde lies calm, grinning at the bickering, with Noora close to her back.

 

Chris feels her eyelids close. They all lie down together, everyone has an arm around her.

Maybe she'll talk to them tomorrow. About something that makes her sad.

Her Losers.

 

**Author's Note:**

> What the drinking straw thing is about:  
> “The russ knots (Norwegian: Russeknuter) on the string of the russ' cap are a wide variety of rewards signaling that the student has fulfilled a certain accomplishment during the russ period. They can be simple knots or tokens attached to the string. Lists of assignments and associated knots are publicized each year by russ committees at schools and communities. The knot often consists of an item representing the accomplishment. For instance, passing through the back seat of a car stopping on a red light (inspired by the television advertisement for the sweet Mentos), earns them a piece of wrapping from the sweet. The russ knot list was first introduced in the 1940s.”  
> \- [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russefeiring#Knots)
> 
> _13\. drinking straw_  
>  Drink half a litre of beer while you sit / stand and pee.  
> \- [Oslo and Akershus knot rules 2018](https://russenshovedstyre.wixsite.com/2018/russeknuter)
> 
> Lots of thanks to [Alene](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alene/pseuds/Alene) who looked over the translation for me.


End file.
